CISRA Puzzle Competition 2007 - Solutions

This is the archive of the 2007 Puzzle Competition. Please visit the current competition site for information about the latest Puzzle Competition.

D.3 Rock Slide

Intuitive leap: This is a sliding tile puzzle, whose directions are given by the initials of each word in the writing beneath it.

The tile positions are assigned letters from A to P:

+---+---+---+---+
| A | B | C | D |
+---+---+---+---+
| E | F | G | H |
+---+---+---+---+
| I | J | K | L |
+---+---+---+---+
| M | N | O | P |
+---+---+---+---+

The first word of the text is "Old", which instructs you to move the tile at O. There is only one place to move it; into position P, leaving O vacant. The next words are "Kepler's Lake", which instructs you to move the the tile at K (into O), then L (into K). Once the full text has been converted to moves in this way and applied to the puzzle board, it will look like this:

+---+---+---+---+
| N | A | M | E |
+---+---+---+---+
| W | I | N | E |
+---+---+---+---+
| G | O | D |   |
+---+---+---+---+
| M | A | M | A |
+---+---+---+---+

A good knowledge of Greek or Roman mythology (or an Internet search) will reveal that Dionysus/Bacchus was the god of wine, and that traditionally, his mother was a human woman named SEMELE.